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The Pune weather made a record even as the sun rose on a scorching Wednesday. The thermometers at the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) weather station at Shivajinagar showed the fourth-highest temperature for May since records started being maintained in 1969.
The minimum temperature was 27.4 degrees Celsius, which is 5.1 degrees above normal. This was an increase of 5.7 degrees Celsius in just three days, since 21.7 degrees Celsius was recorded on May 10.
The last time Shivajinagar, which hosts the city’s main observatory, woke up feeling so warm in May was in 2024, when the morning temperature was 27.3 degrees Celsius. Last year, the warmest May morning was much cooler at 25.3 degrees Celsius.
Its record for the highest minimum temperature for May was 29.4 degrees Celsius on May 12, 1979. A day earlier that year, the minimum temperature was 28.2 degrees Celsius, the second-highest on record. It was decades later that the morning warmth in Shivajinagar in May would touch a new high, 28 degrees Celsius, on May 19, 2010.
Mercury climbs across Pune
Though Shivajinagar represents the official weather data of Pune, other parts of the city record different temperatures. Lohegaon has seen particularly hot mornings and days. On Wednesday, the minimum temperature here reached 29.2 degrees Celsius, which is a worrying 6.9 degrees Celsius above normal and far higher than the previous morning’s 27 degrees Celsius, which was already 4.7 degrees above normal.
Hadapsar, Magarpatta, and Koregaon Park started the day as the warmest parts of the city, when the mercury soared to 28.8 degrees Celsius. Wadgaonsheri reached 28 degrees Celsius, marginally above the previous day’s minimum temperature, and Chinchwad recorded 27.1 degrees Celsius, which was higher than Tuesday’s morning temperature of 26.9 degrees Celsius.
There was little respite even in the leafy neighbourhoods of the National Defence Academy and Pashan on Wednesday, as the morning temperature hit around 26.4 degrees Celsius, 4.6 degrees Celsius, and 2.2 degrees Celsius higher than the day before’s readings. It was similar at Lavale, which reported 24.1 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, up from 23.7 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
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The present temperatures in Shivajinagar are aligned with the IMD’s forecast of heatwave and warm night phenomenon in central Maharashtra and Marathwada until Thursday. A warm night is a term used to depict a condition in which the maximum temperature over a place is above 40 degrees Celsius and the minimum temperature is 4.5 -6.4 degrees Celsius above normal.
“The urban heat island effect, with the concrete structures absorbing the heat and warming the nights, is among the reasons for the rise in the minimum temperature. There is low wind speed, so the sun’s heat from the day stays trapped,” says SD Sanap, Scientist at IMD Pune.
A slight breather in the day
On Wednesday, the maximum temperature in Shivajinagar fell by 1.8 degree C from the previous day to 39 degree C. This is in keeping with the maximum temperatures at this time of the year.
On Monday, the Shivajinagar maximum temperature had touched the highest readings in a decade – 41.6 degrees Celsius – around 4 degrees Celsius above normal. Since then, as maximum temperature has been gradually declining. In Lohegaon, as well, the maximum temperature fell by 1.8 degree C, from 43.2 degree C on Tuesday to 41.4 degree C on Wednesday. Chinchwad, similarly, registered a 1 degree C fall from Tuesday to 37.9 degree C on Wednesday.
The day was cooler in Lavale by 2.1 degree C from Tuesday as the readings showed 37.2 degree C on Wednesday. In Koregaon Park, those who walk or work outdoor would have noticed a slight fall in temperature during the day – it was 39 degree C, 1.7 degree C lower than 24 hours before. NDA and Pashan were, both, 37.3 degree C warm, cooler from the day before.
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Cloudy sky, but no rain
According to the IMD, Pune will have cloudy skies till May 15 but, there is no sign of rain at present. From Shivajinagar, Magarpatta and Koregaon Park to Chinchwad, NDA and Lavale, the daytime temperatures are likely to be in the 40 degree C range. Lohegaon is expected to continue to have scorching days, with the maximum temperature likely to reach 43 degree C.
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